Day 492

Gotta love it when it rains at the bus stop. I asked Josh over and over if he wanted me to take the car so he could sit inside and wait. He kept telling me no! He wanted to use his poncho. It kept him dry....just not his socks and shoes. Hannah wanted to get in on the rain too! We usually sit on the steps and watch Josh until the bus comes. Hannah had fun playing in the rain wearing 2 different shoes.

Day 491

I am really bad with Bible story time. Don't get me wrong, we read a lot of books and a lot of Bible stories. We also talk about those stories and pray, but I felt like it was time for a change and some direction. We do things a little differently now. During my own quiet time I will write down Bible verses that stand out to me on an index card. I will give the kids a card and let them spend time reading it and then one night during our family devotion time I will have them read the verse and explain it. Obviously, Caleb doesn't get hard ones. He got to explain the fruit of the spirit the other night and he did a GREAT job. I recently read through Job again, so Josh snatched up those cards. Let me just tell you we turned one verse into about 30 minutes of discussion. If you aren't familiar with the story of Job---he is blessed beyond measure. He loses everything and still praises God. Then his skin is attacked (we can relate to that one in this house) and he STILL praises God. Josh can really go on and on about this one. Samantha had a hard time with it, so we broke it down to losing her favorite puppy. We talked about how God sees the big picture while we are sitting in the middle of lost puppies. She honestly told me she didn't know if she could thank God if she lost her puppy. We talked about the big picture though. What if a little girl whose house had just burned down found it. She lost all of her toys and she finds a sweet soft puppy to love. Samantha said that would be ok. I told her that she might never know what happened to that puppy though...would she still be able to say thank you while she didn't know? I could see God working in her little heart. Anyway, back to our devotional time. We read a story out of this family devotion book. Then I ask questions about the story and we go over the memory verse. After that the kids pick a song from the hymnal to sing. I am trying to get the kids to dig deeper in their prayer lives too. I will ask each one of them to say something they want to pray for THEN ask someone else to pray for it. It is neat to watch them pray for each other. I have picked out a Bible verse to pray sometimes. I want to teach them that they can pray the Word of God too. This has really been a wonderful time for us as a family to do. Caleb gets pretty upset if he thinks we aren't going to do it. It is far too late when we get home on Wednesday nights, the first few weeks he threw himself a pretty good tantrum.

Day 490

Another Wednesday night come and gone! The first picture is the 3rd-5th grade choir kids...there were about 10 missing. The second picture is of a piece of fruit I picked up at dinner. We were trying to figure out what it was and what we were supposed to do with it when Caleb blurted out that it was a "smiley fruit"---we were just a little speechless for a minute. He was adamant about this because there was a smiley face on it. Just check out the picture and you will see it. LOL

Day 489

Last week I took the plunge and ordered a Nike + sensor for my shoes. I can't go on enough about how awesome it is! No worrying about a stop watch and driving my course, just push a button and go! It measures everything! It even gives you updates as you run. You can set goals, make courses, adjust playlists (still need to set up one for running). When you are done, just plug your iPod in and it syncs the info with Nike+. You get a cool looking graph like in the picture. The circles tell you the pace I was running at the time. It is just way cool---for the record, those (dips) were at red lights. :)

Day 488

Today the girls helped Meema make toffee almond bars.

Day 487

As many of you know, Sunday's are the favorite day in the house. We get to get up and go to church. The kids love it! So do I. There is always so much to learn. So much to give! A time to truly be who I am in Christ without the fears of what is so and so going to think of me. (don't worry, I am working on that) Here is a picture of us girls before church. The little ones are just so beautiful! And if you happen to see me around church, I promise I do own clothes other than black. I sing with the Gathering Singers and we have to get the privilege to wear black when we sing. That way we are not a distraction and not taking away from true worship.

Day 486

Gulp! I have NO picture for today! Josh and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince again. I hadn't read the book yet when we saw it originally. Let me just say that out of all the movies, this was the biggest disappointment. Now Marc is always quick to point out how they can't possibly fit everything in....I know, but they should at least include the important stuff. Well, in this movie they left out the major battle scene at the end. Yes, yes...for those of you who did see the movie, there is a "battle" scene, BUT it is lame and absolutely nothing compared to the book. I wouldn't even call what they did in the movie a battle scene! It was more just BAM and your dead. The movie had me on the edge of my seat...er chair, bed...well wherever I happened to be reading at the time. Even though I knew the outcome, the book was too good to put down. Enough of that, I know books never measure up to the movies anyway!

Day485

Sandy (our dog) got the picture of the day. We finally called the mobile groomer to have her washed and trimmed. Hannah waited and waited for her Sandy to get done. She spent most of the 2 hours on the porch. Here are some pictures of our beautiful clean flee free dog!

Sandy is terrified of cameras, that is why she is "hiding"

She thought I put the camera away.
Hannah thought Sandy did so great, so she gave her lots of toys and hugs.

Day 484

Samantha practices her piano when she gets home from school. Today Hannah wanted to practice too.

Day 483

Here is what some mornings look like. Hannah blocking the door so no one can leave. This morning Caleb and Samantha barely got passed her to catch the bus. It was here when we managed to get the door open. If you want to see a video of Hannah's new dance moves click here.